


Fusion, Freedom, Reinvention

by CompletelyDifferent



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Cotton Candy Garnet, F/F, Fae & Fairies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 02:17:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CompletelyDifferent/pseuds/CompletelyDifferent
Summary: They met under the stars, and that was the start of everything-- stealing glances, strolling through the forest, kissing under the moonlight.Theirs is a fairy tale romance-- of magic and glamour, of debts and blood, of love and sacrifice.





	Fusion, Freedom, Reinvention

They first met at mid-autumn, a time of truce for their two Courts.

Under the full moon, the Sovereigns of Summer and the Witnesses of Winter met in a stone circle upon the moors. Space was malleable there, and time too; those who passed the rocks found themselves in a field which seemed to stretch for infinity, its ground carpeted in crisp fallen leaves, the night air lit by the glow of will-o-the-wisps.

Ruby was a soldier, her skin like embers, her hair flames.

Sapphire was a seer, her skin frosted, her single eye a crystal of ice.

Fae are not clumsy. They are elegant by nature, light on their feet, as insubstantial as air.

Somehow, though, Ruby collided with Sapphire.

There was a hush.

A silence which was not just the absence of sound, but a complete vacuum of it. 

Sapphire stared down at herself, at where some of her skin had melted and boiled away.

“My apologies,” Ruby stammered, through fear and half-frozen lips.

“It was determined,” Sapphire said, and waved it off. Already, the frost was creeping back up her skin.

The vacuum filled in, as all at once the Gentry continued on with their business. The soldier and the seer watched each other for one more moment, and then they too, carried on.

Fae do not say thank you. Those words are too shallow a thing-- just a trinket, a distraction behind which to hide.

Nonetheless, Ruby was grateful. Sapphire could have had her executed with a word. Instead, she had spared her. 

There was a debt there, and debts have to be repaid. 

* * *

They met again at the next truce, at mid-spring. Again it was held at the same rock circle upon the moors. Now the ground beneath their feet had sprung fresh new grass, and the air thrummed with the call of cicadas.

Someone had brought human musicians for entertainment. With the insect buzz as the beat, their flute and fiddle wove a tune that captivated the Fair Folk, and set them all to dancing. The Fae spun across the grass, exchanging partners as they went. There was a pattern, but one too subtle and too complex to be determined by mortal eyes, all politics and power, pulling at the dancers as the moon pulled at the tides.

Ruby sought Sapphire out. A single dance was not worth the price of a life, but it would at least begin to settle the score. 

“Would you like a dance?” Ruby asked, bowing deep. 

Sapphire considered for a moment, the curtsied in return. “I would.”

They orbited each other, careful not to touch. Still, they could _feel_ one another, the burn, the chill.

The music got faster, and the dancing sped to match.

It was dizzying, and delightful, but despite it all, Ruby found herself still catching glimpses of the human musicians. Her eyes felt pulled towards them. They were in a sorry state. The fiddle player’s fingers were raw, the blood dripping down his bow onto the new earth below. He was the luckier of the two. The woodwind player’s flute had grown into her skin; already her face was covered in bark, leaves sprouting where her eyes should have been. It should have been amusing, and yet…

Ruby only just bit back a wince.

Sapphire saw the sympathy on her face. Knew the trouble that would be inflicted upon her, if another member of the Courts saw that sympathy. 

“Look at me,” Sapphire said, and pulled Ruby’s gaze to her. “Keep your eyes on me.”

 So Ruby did. She was an easier thing to look at, anyway. Sapphire was as beautiful as the freshly fallen snow.

 And for her part, Sapphire felt herself drawn towards Ruby like a moth to the flame.

* * *

And so it went, through the seasons, the years, the decades. Each autumn and spring, the Courts of Summer and Winter would come to a truce, and Ruby and Sapphire would seek each other out.

If there was a chance, they would dance.

* * *

In time, even that was not enough.

They found other ways to meet, away from other Fae eyes. Sapphire would See into the future, found the times she would not be missed. Ruby would wait until her betters were occupied, by the Hunt or other such proceedings, and sneak away.

They’d meet in forested groves; at the edges of oceans; on mountain peaks.  

They learned to weave better glamours, ones which better hid their natures. That dampened Ruby’s flames, and thawed Sapphire’s ice. It allowed them to pass through the world unimpeded, helped keep them hidden from watchful eyes. It let them grow closer, too. Disguised, the two could bare each other’s touch for at least a few moments.

Unbound by Court politics, Court ceremony, Court hierarchy, they could speak freely. They discussed whatever topics crossed their minds, like clouds drifting through the sky. Their lives. The seasons. Animals. Humans. 

They were fascinated by humans, as all Fae were. They could not stop themselves from visiting human townships, any more than water could stop itself from rolling down hills.

They had to be careful. Humans were wary of the Fair Folk-- and they were right to be wary, both of them thought. They kept their towns well warded. Even in human guise, the pair were careful to avoid iron, and hazel, and rowan, and bread, and the ringing of bells at twilight.

They were careful, too, not to let their natures overwhelm themselves. To not have Ruby’s sparks go wild, and leave a barn burned down. To not have Sapphire’s frost encroach, and leave the crops dead in their fields.

At first, it was merely practical. The Courts would not care about such destruction-- they’d revel in it, in fact-- but they would care about the nature of the perpetrators, if they caught wind. A lowly, untitled foot-soldier and a high seer?  That was scandalous enough, though not unheard of. But to take a lover from an opposing court? Treason. It would never be tolerated, more than reason for anyone, fae or mortal, to extract a very high price indeed for the keeping of such a secret 

Then, it was indulgent. Humans were curious creatures, delightful to watch. Ruby liked to see their children playing in the streets, shrieking and laughing with unbridled delight. Sapphire liked to watch the women weaving, creating cloth from wool, like a conjuring. Both of them loved human songs, and sought out any chance to hear them. 

Then, it was indulgent. The humans had their own lives, their own personal concerns, their own private dramas. They were intriguing despite how small, blind and feeble they were-- or perhaps because of that. They were like characters in a play. The farmer’s wife, her belly swelling with child. The widowed midwife who tended to her. The carpenter’s apprentice. The barman. The tailor. The goatherd. 

Some of the humans left gifts for the Fair Folk-- offerings of milk, butter, and food. These were not the treats of fae, not sparkling wine made from starlight, not pastries spun from rainbows, not the sweet fruits that grew from the trees of the other worlds. They were mortal meals, made of meat, and of fat, and of grain, and they filled the Fae up as nothing had before.

 They left gifts for the humans, in exchange. A charm on a wine cellar, to keep it cool, even in the height of summer. A spell on a hearth to keep it hot, even in the depths of winter. And together, a casting of their very own, to keep the blight at bay.

* * *

 Sapphire and Ruby spied uponafter all of the humans, but their favourites were most certainly the young lovers.

They followed the lovers, hiding from them using charms of invisibility, or else disguising themselves as birds, or frogs, or hounds. Followed them through the town square; flew above them as they wandered the fields; watched them at night from the windows. Saw the tender ways they touched one another. The gifts they exchanged freely, without any expectation of returns. The compliments they whispered in each others ears. Sweet nothings, the humans called them. Oaths and promises which were not binding, spoken only for delight.

Ruby and Sapphire wished they could do the same.

* * *

Centuries and centuries, these meetings had been going, when the words were spoken. 

“I love you,” Ruby pledged.

“I love you too,” Sapphire returned.

And then they cried into each other’s arms, because The Fair Folk cannot lie, so they knew these words were true.

* * *

They were discovered soon after.

They did not know how. Perhaps some sprite had spied them, and reported it to gain favour. Perhaps their glamour had failed at a key moment. Perhaps the Court had stolen some human from the village, who’d let something slip. Perhaps one of the Queens had simply felt the magical imprint the pair had left behind in their wanderings.

All they knew was that when the next Spring Truce came, there was no feasting, no songs, no dancing.

The two were dragged to the centre of the Stone Circle, the Gentry of both Courts gathered around, cheering, shouting, jeering, taunting. 

“Traitors!” they cried. 

“Spies!” they yelled. 

“Defilers!” they hooted.

“Silence!” ordered two voices, one crackling with heat and the other with cold.

The Queens appeared before their Courts.  

They sat in their thrones. Summer’s was made of brambles that shone like burnished gold. The ripest of berries hung among the thorns. Winter’s was carved from ice, and beneath the surface one could see indistinct shapes moving.

Already thrown to the ground, Ruby and Sapphire bowed to their lieges. 

“What have you done?” Summer demanded.

Ruby explained. 

Neither Queen understood.

“Why did you do this?” Winter demanded.

Sapphire explained.

Neither Queen understood.

The last question the Queen’s asked in unison: “Will you renounce one another?”

Ruby and Sapphire locked eyes. The Fair Folk cannot lie. 

Together, they answered: “No.”

Still neither Queen understood.

And so they could not allow it to stand at all.

“Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard,” said Summer, “get to your feet.”

Bound by her True Name, Ruby stood.

“Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth,” said Winter, “rise.”

Bound by her True Name, Sapphire stood.

The Queens had created them, and so knew their true natures, their True Names. Those Names wielded power, and when spoken, direct demands could not be denied.

And the Queens demanded that that night, when the moon was at its peak, that Ruby must kill Sapphire, and that Sapphire must kill Ruby. And all would see what was to become of those that betrayed the intended order.

* * *

The sun was setting.

Ruby and Sapphire were not placed in cages, were not locked away. They was no way to escape, ringed as they were by Courtesans on all sides. They were allowed to stay together. To share in the agony until it reached the inevitable time when they would be forced to end each other. 

“There must be some way,” Ruby said, her voice a fierce, desperate whisper.

“There is none,” Sapphire said, resigned. She could See the future in front of her, solid as ice. There were three possibilities. Sapphire could kill Ruby. Ruby could kill Sapphire. Or both would kill each other at the same time.

Ruby cried, her tears boiling.

Sapphire cried, her tears freezing.

Those Kindly Ones around them laughed. 

* * *

“There has to be _something_ ,” Ruby said, as the sky turned purple, and the moon began to rise.

Sapphire shook her head. “We cannot deny our Names.” 

Ruby stared down at her hands, shaking. 

Then the answer came to her.

She looked up, met Sapphire’s eye, and said, “What if they were not our Names?’

* * *

The moon climbed higher and higher in the sky, the time drawing closer.

It was not a dark moon. It was not a new moon, a single crescent of silver. Nor was it a full. It was in the most powerful phase of all. 

Half dark, half light.

* * *

The Queens returned, and the Fae encircling the two lovers drawing nearer. Their smiles were as sharp as knives, and their eyes glinted like wildcats’, ten times as cruel.

The lovers stood up. 

None of the onlookers spoke, waiting to see what would happen.

Sapphire held out her hands, and Ruby took them.  

There was no glamour here, no magic concealing their true natures, dampening them. The heat burned through Sapphire’s skin, melting it. Instantly it boiled away, and Sapphire could all but stop herself from crying out in pain. Ruby too was rocked, as Sapphire’s fingers grew into long icicles, bursting through her gloves and piercing into Ruby’s flesh, embedding themselves there. She struggled to stay on her feet, as though buffeted by a winter wind.

Through the pain, they spoke.

“Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth,” said Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard, “I pledge myself to you, wholly and completely. I give you my power, to use however you wish.”

“Warrior Who Charges Headfirst Into The Blizzard,” said Seeker and Keeper of the Spark of Truth, “I pledge myself to you as well, wholly and completely. I give to you my power, to use however you wish.”

The Gentry were screaming now, crying with voices that howled like wolves, but all the lovers could hear were each other’s voices. All they could see was each other’s faces. They pressed themselves close, feeling their skin freeze and boil and melt, and the pain was exquisite.

The next part, they spoke unison: “ _Let me change you, and in doing so, be changed myself. For now and forever. \_ ”

Lightning flashed.

* * *

The Faerie that stood there was something entirely new.

Her legs were too long, her fists too large, her hips too wide, her waist too small. Her chill had been softened by spring; her heat tempered by autumn. She glowed, lightning racing up and down her body, and so none could touch her, unless she permitted it. She had three eyes, and with them, she saw the Kindly Ones around her for what they truly were. 

Most Fae turned their eyes away, unable to bear the sight.

The Queens of Summer and Winter cried out to the new one. Ordered the new one to stop. To halt. To destroy themselves-- herself-- there and then.

But the Names they called out were not hers. Not anymore. And she would not be bound by them. 

So The One Who Forged Herself Of Love ran from the Courts, and did not look back.


End file.
